Investigating the Caribbean

We decided that it was time to travel. So we took the plunge and decided to take our first trip out to the Caribbean. Ryan, my oldest son came into my room early one morning an said: “Mom how come we go everywhere, but south of the border?”. I thought about what he said and I said to myself, yeah he’s right, we go everywhere but south of the border. Thus the trip was made, we opted to go on a cruise to Puerto Rico with a stop in Playa Dela Carmen, Mexico.

We took Carnival Cruise this time around since last time we took Alaskan Cruise Lines. As soon as we booked we were inundated by the sheer number of food and drink packages for purchase. To be honest I really talked myself into not buying any alcohol because I just figured I’d be a good role model this year. Yeah, that plan didn’t work out well. Anyway, I knew that I would drink a lot and I didn’t want to have to pay those ridiculous prices so I went searching on the web and found Sneaking Booze

My Excitement

Long story short they created a way to save you a ton of money on drinks. So anyway, we get all ready for the cruise are a day away and I’m starting to feel the excitement coming. I’m telling my neighbors and everybody about our cruise – I can’t keep my mouth shut! I tried to go to sleep, but couldn’t so I stayed up all night long in anticipation of the cruise. The morning of we packed up the SUV and went to board it in Siesta Keys, Florida.

The line was long and the day was already in the ’80s. Finally, we made on the cruise and we were off to Playa Del Carmen. I’ve never been to Mexico so when we landed I must say it was very different. Different as in everyone was nice to us. Everywhere we went people were saying “Beautiful come in and let me show you, Mexican, hospitality”, I was floored. When I went to purchase something they would even offer to convert my dollars into pesos, so generous they are. We took a quick day trip over to Cancun and from there to Isla Mujeres. What a gorgeous island it was, whew!

Isla Mujeres

First, we had to wait in this extremely long line just to get over to the island. I think it took at least an hour for the ferry to come to pick us up on the Cancun side. However, once we boarded the ferry it was all smooth sailing. We got to the Isla Mujeres side and it was just white sandy beaches and turquoise water. We could only stay for an hour or so because the ship was going to leave soon.
We board the ship and we find out that Puerto Rico just got hit by a hurricane and that we are going to get routed back to Florida. Depressed we were but we understand that safety is number one. Our trip was cut short but we made long-lasting memories. I can’t wait until our next adventure!